Movie Review: Keeping Up with the Joneses

Keeping Up with the Joneses

Directed by: Greg Mottola.

Written by: Michael LeSieur.

Starring: Zach Galifianakis (Jeff Gaffney), Isla Fisher (Karen Gaffney), Jon Hamm (Tim Jones), Gal Gadot (Natalie Jones), Patton Oswalt (Scorpion), Ming Zhao (Scorpion's Girlfriend), Matt Walsh (Dan Craverston), Maribeth Monroe (Meg Craverston), Michael Liu (Yang), Kevin Dunn (Carl Pronger).

 

Keeping Up with the Joneses commits the crime of having four talented stars, and then giving them almost nothing of interest to do. I was reminded a little of this year’s Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, in that I would, without question, watch another comedy starring its four leads, even though this one did absolutely nothing for me. Sure, the film is perhaps an okay time waster – something to fold laundry to on a Sunday afternoon when it plays on TBS, where you can wander in and out, and perhaps doze on the couch for a few minutes without worrying about missing anything. But given the talent involved, that has to rank as a pretty big disappointment, no?

 

The film stars Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher and Jeff and Karen Gaffney – he’s an overly cheerful HR worker, who actually believes in the BS slogans he spews, and she’s a stay at home mom, turned interior decorator – although she only has one client. They’ve just gotten rid of their kids for the summer – sending them off to camp – and now they have to deal with more time with each other – and although there is a montage of all the depraved sex they could have with each other, they opt instead to watch The Good Wife on DVR. Their lives get more interesting when the Joneses’ move in across the street – this couple is impossibly perfectly, played by the impossibly good looking Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot. They are perhaps too perfect, which raises Karen’s suspicions – leading her to follow Natalie Jones around. This leads to a scene in which Gadot and Fisher stand around in lingerie for minutes on end that somehow still manages to be kind of dull. If you’ve seen the trailers, you know the “secret” of the movie – which the Joneses are really spies, and that, somehow, the Gaffney’s will become embroiled in their latest escapades.

 

What’s somewhat disappointing about the film is that it keeps pushing up against some interesting ideas – couples who have trouble reconnecting after years of their lives revolving around their children, Hamm’s own dissatisfaction with his job, etc. and then jettisoning those idea for another broad comedic moment, or a subpar action sequences. The cast is talented, but not really given much to do – Galifianakis is less wacky than normal, but the effect is that he’s basically kind of dull. Fisher, usually a comedic firecracker, tries really hard, but doesn’t really have a character. Gadot, the best thing in Batman v. Superman, as Wonder Woman, is impossibly good looking, and her role seems to be entirely to be impossibly good looking. Hamm probably has the most fun with his role, perhaps because he excels at seeming to not give a shit.

 

The film has a laugh or two, here and there. I would like to see a movie with these four stars, written to their strengths, because that may be downright hilarious. But here, everyone seems shoehorned into their roles, and the film takes the path of least resistance at every turn. The film is directed by Greg Motolla – who has excellent films like Superbad and Adventureland on his resume – but here, like everyone else, he seems to simply be going through the motions.

Movie Review: Paul

Paul ***
Directed by: Greg Mottola
Written By: Nick Frost & Simon Pegg.
Starring: Simon Pegg (Graeme Willy), Nick Frost (Clive Gollings), Seth Rogen (Paul), Kristen Wiig (Ruth Buggs), Jason Bateman (Agent Zoil), Jeffrey Tambor (Adam Shadowchild), Jane Lynch (Pat Stevens), David Koechner (Gus), Jesse Plemons (Jake), Sigourney Weaver (The Big Guy), Bill Hader (Haggard), Joe Lo Truglio (O'Reilly), John Carroll Lynch (Moses Buggs), Blythe Danner (Tara Walton).

Much like the previous two films written and starring Nick Frost and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), Paul works much better if you know the films that the two of them are poking loving fun of. If, like me, you’ve seen a ton of alien invasion movies, you will probably like Paul a lot more than most people. Hardly a scene goes by where they are not referencing one movie or another – sometimes blatantly, and sometimes subtlety. If Paul does not reach the heights of their previous two movies, I think it could be because this time, they are merely content to poke fun, and don’t push the movie further, like those two did. Perhaps this is because Edgar Wright has moved on, and didn’t direct this film, and so the two decided on Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland) to direct. Mottola is a fine director, but he’s no Edgar Wright.

The film is about two British geeks, Graeme (Pegg) and Clive (Frost) who have travelled to America to attend Comicon in San Diego and then go on a cross country trip in a rented RV to visit all the alien hotspots – like Area 51 and the Black Mailbox (which is no longer black). One night, on a dark, lonely stretch of highway, a car whizzes past them, and then crashes into the ditch. Being good citizens, they get out to investigate and this is when they meet Paul – an alien, with the voice of Seth Rogen, who asks for their help. He is escaping from the government, and needs to head north so his people can pick him up. Although Clive is less enthusiastic about the idea than Graeme is, they agree to help Paul. Of course, it isn’t long before Federal Agents, lead by the no nonsense Agent Zoil (Jason Bateman) and his two bumbling underlings (Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio) are on their trial, trying to take Paul back to the lab.

Rogen was an inspired choice to do the voice of Paul, who of course, is not quite like the other aliens we have met in movies before. He is precisely what you would expect an alien who sounds like Seth Rogen to be – lazy and funny, spitting out pop culture references constantly (in the 60 years he has been on earth, he has helped shaped the way aliens are perceived by the public by collaborating with some big directors). I admit to being a fan of Rogen, even if his movies are hit or miss most of the time, but here, he does some great work as Paul. It doesn’t hurt that Pegg and Frost have such an easy chemistry together, and help make this an inspired comic trio – not just an alien Rogen doing his shtick. It also helps that they cast fine actors in smaller roles like Jane Lynch as a waitress with big hair, Kristen Wiig as a Jesus freak (whose has t-shirt featuring Jesus and Darwin that I would love, even if I completely disagree with it) and David Koechner and John Carroll Lynch as rednecks. Oh, and especially Jeffer Tambor, as a sci-fi writer. This is probably not a movie that is going to play well with The Tea Party, or pretty much anywhere in the rural South, but for me, it was hilarious.

The movie doesn’t really reach the greatness that was on display in Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz though. It is a little too laid back, some may even say lazy, for that to happen. Those two movies skewers zombie movies and actions movie respectively, but were also something a little more – fine examples of the genres themselves, just with a wicked satiric edge. Paul is content to be simply a comedy – an oftentimes amusing and sometimes hilarious comedy, but one with no real bite. For movie fans, Paul is a fun ride, full of references to make you feel smart, and enough humor not based on pop culture references so that others will probably enjoy it as well. If it doesn’t reach the heights of Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, than so be it – few comedies do anyway.

Movie Review: Adventureland

Adventureland *** ½
Directed By: Greg Mottola.
Written By: Greg Mottola.
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg (James Brennan), Kristen Stewart (Em Lewin), Martin Starr (Joel), Bill Hader (Bobby), Kristen Wiig (Paulette), Ryan Reynolds (Mike Connell), Margarita Levieva (Lisa P), Jack Gilpin (Mr. Brennan), Wendie Malick (Mrs. Brennan), Matt Bush (Tommy Frigo).

Who among us hasn’t had a job that we consider beneath us? While in high school or university, we have all had those mind numbing, pointless minimum wage jobs that failed to stimulate us on any intellectual level. When you’re in university, that’s when you’re full of these great ideas and illusions about your future career. And that’s when you have to work those jobs you hate. The only good thing about those jobs is that you often meet people in the same boat as you – together you forge a bond to hate the job together.

That is essentially what Adventureland is about. James (Jesse Eisenberg) has just graduated university, and was planning on spending the summer backpacking through Europe before heading to Graduate school at Columbia in the fall. But his dad gets demoted, and they have no money, so instead, he ends up taking a job at Adventureland amusement park. At Adventureland there are two types of people – Rides People and Games People. The Rides People are the glamorous ones, so of course, James ends up as a Games person. Why? Because his boss Bobby (Bill Hader) got that Games Application out first.

The job is soul sucking. He basically sits around all day administrating games that are rigged so the customer can never actually win the giant panda they all want so badly. The only bright spots are the people he works with. He finds a kindred spirit in Joel (Martin Starr), who hates it all much more than James does, because after all, this isn’t his first summer there. There’s Connell (Ryan Reynolds), the maintenance man who is the essence of cool – he once jammed with Lou Reed! And then there’s two girls who are drawn to James. There’s Em (Kristen Stewart), who is pretty and smart and funny, and perhaps unavailable. And there’s Lisa P. (Margarita Levieva), who isn’t very smart or funny, but gorgeous, and available. The promise of what James will get from each is written right on their shirts. Em’s says “Games, Games, Game”, Lisa’s “Rides, Rides, Rides”.

From the previews, you’d think that Adventureland is another Superbad – they certainly do play up the comedy of the movie, and the fact that both films are directed by the same guy – Greg Mottola. But other than the fact that both are comedies about young men, the two movies share very little in common. Yes, Adventureland has some laugh out loud moments – many involving Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as the couple who runs Adventureland. They are one of those couples who seem like complete opposites, but somehow complement each other perfectly. They are equally disturbed, but somehow they balance each other out. But most of the movie is made up of a more knowing, intimate, character driven humor. The film reminded me of Freaks and Geeks, one of the best TV shows of all time, which based its humor more on the pain of growing up then on anything else. The movie isn’t a series of comic misadventures, but rather a document of a long, confusing, painful summer, where sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying. If this makes the movie sound dark, that’s unintentional – it isn’t – but I have a feeling that most people are going to see a little bit of themselves in these characters.

The acting is uniformly excellent, which in a movie like this is crucial. Jesse Eisenberg maybe a poor man’s Michael Cera, yet in a movie like this, he may be a better choice. With Cera you always have his comic persona getting in the way of a real character, whereas with Eisenberg, he feels a little more real – like his dialogue is more than just a series of punch lines. Kristen Stewart has grown into a gifted actress, and she makes Em into a complete, complicated, confused young woman. Ryan Reynolds is very good as that older guy who always seems to be hanging out with the young kids well past the point where he should. And Martin Starr makes Joel into a sympathetic character – one who tries too hard to fit in, and finally just gives up.

Adventureland will not be as popular a movie as Superbad was. It is a little too serious for that. But what both movies share is a knowledge of what young people are actually like, and the desires that drive them to do what they do. Superbad worked because each and every joke was based on the characters, and was hilarious, not because it was overly realistic. Adventureland works because it captures that spirit of fun and pain that accompany growing up just about right. The movies couldn’t be more different – but they are about equal in terms of quality.